درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Sino-US Relations in the Persian Gulf during Obama’s AdministrationAbstract:The Persian Gulf is one of the most important regions of the world that has been vital for the great powers since long time ago, not only for its energy resources but also its strategic location. After the British withdrawal from the region in 1971, the United States filled the vacuum and tried to preserve the status quo during the cold war. Since 1980s China was also attracted by the huge energy resources and the vast market of the region. But in the 21st century and the rise of China as the second largest economy of the world, the importance of the Persian Gulf enhanced in China’s view to manage its energy needs and benefit from its lucrative market and possible bilateral capital investment. This article intends to examine the relationships between China and the United States of America during the Obama’s administration. By using the “Power Cycle Theory” it is concluded that the United States has accepted the Chinese position as the rising power in the Persian Gulf region; and that their relationships were based on collaboration and competition, not confrontation or hostility; which seems to continue in the foreseeable future as well. Key Words: The Persian Gulf, China, The United States, Collaboration, Competition, Confrontation, Hostility.

Enterprise risk management (ERM) represents a new paradigm that supports organizations in identifying, evaluating, and managing risks. Several factors encourage different organizations, especially banks, to design and apply ERM; among them, the possibility of financial problems and related costs, financial performance decline, growth opportunities, and independence of the board of directors can be pointed out. In addition, applying a suitable risk management strategy is a competitive advantage for supporting companies. Following the previous comprehensive studies, the present study was done by integrating a meta-composition approach and multivariate fuzzy network analysis. In this research, to identify effective factors on ERM based on empirical evidence and selection of studies, description and classification of selected articles, analysis of the content of selected research articles, and finally, the importance and refinement of the identified factors based on the Delphi expert opinion polling technique, and multivariate fuzzy network analysis was discussed. The study aimed to identify and rank the factors affecting the effectiveness of ERM of the firms accepted in selected banks in Iran. While reviewing studies, a semi-structured interview was conducted using an Exploratory-Descriptive Qualitative (EDQ) research design to determine the factors that affect ERM effectiveness. The interviewed experts were comprised of 20 university professors, CEOs, financial analysts of investment and brokerage companies, and senior auditors with accounting and management education. The literature review and the results of the interviews indicate five main themes that classify the factors affecting ERM effectiveness in firms. In this study, key factors were identified, and then the fuzzy Delphi technique was employed to rank and find the weight of the factors. The results showed that corporate governance, financial indicators, environmental indicators, company characteristics, and management indicators effectively enhance ERM's effectiveness. Accordingly, capital market analysts and investment companies should take a broader perspective and make decisions based on companies' financial risks instead of paying attention to companies' profitability and stock price changes. The results demonstrated that five factors determine ERM effectiveness: 1. corporate governance indicators (monitoring the board of directors and ownership structure), 2. Financial indicators (return on assets (ROA), earnings volatility, merger and acquisition (M&A) activities, financial deficiency, and capital opacity), 3. Environmental indicators (performance excellence, industry competition, audit firm credibility, environmental uncertainty, and industry), 4. Firm characteristics (financial leverage, firm size, and growth opportunities), and 5. Management indicators (management career and business diversity).

According to the form-out agreement the investor of the international petroleum agreement “farmor”, during the implementation of the project and due to various reasons such as lack of finance resources and/or incapability of contract performance, assigns provision of required investments for the purpose of performing an upstream oil project and/or certain operations (well drilling) under the upstream contract to other entities “farmee”, and generally in case of fulfillment of the aforementioned affairs by the farmee, the farmor transfers to the farmee a percentage of its participating interest in the international petroleum agreement upon permission from the host country. In line with this, through evaluating the upstream contracts in Iran, as well as the necessities for attracting investments for the purpose of performing such contracts, it is possible to find out the importance of clause concerning the assignment of contract in order for creating required legal instruments for entering into the farm-out agreement in accordance with the rules and regulations. So that through concluding farm-out agreement between the present and the potential investors, prevent emerging difficulties arising out of mere assignment of the contract to the potential investors during the implementation of upstream contracts.

The healthcare system holds a significance role in economic growth and development of any country. For assessing and evaluating the healthcare system, the relative prices of this sector are one of the crucial indicator. This study employs a stochastic dynamic general equilibrium model to examine the impacts of monetary, fiscal and technology shocks on the healthcare sector in the Iranian economy. The results indicate that positive monetary shock has direct impact on general inflation but tends to be reduced the relative prices of the health sector. Thus, the positive impact of this shock on the production of non-health goods is greater than the health sector. Also, positive shocks related to oil income, government health sector expenditures, and technology increase the production of health and non-health goods and have an inverse effect on inflation of this sector.